Lamentations...

for The People Called Methodists in the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave

 

I am not afraid that the people called Methodists should ever cease to exist either in Europe or in America. But I am afraid lest they should only exist as a dead sect, having the form of religion without the power. And this undoubtedly will be the case unless they hold fast the doctrine, spirit and discipline with which they first set out - John Wesley

 

A scholarly account regarding John Wesley’s Deed of Declaration entitled : “The Rev. John Wesley’s Declaration and Appointment of the Conference of the People called Methodists” provides us with a rich historical view on Wesley’s break up with Francis Asbury and the rise and fall of Methodism in America and the continuing decline in United Methodist Church membership to this present era.

 

After some prayerful reflection we draw the following conclusions –

 

·      The challenge is more than just attaining freedom and being brave enough to defend it. It necessarily includes the responsibility of liberating others and sharing the blessings of freedom with all of God’s people – “Freely you have received, freely give.” (Matthew 10:8) (Cf. “Set free to liberate” - Union Theological Seminary credo).

 

·         Steadfastness with the doctrine, spirit and discipline of faith necessarily requires unqualified submission (loyalty, trust and obedience) to the master by the disciple(s). Committed discipleship remains constant, consistent and never in conflict with the status of independence and autonomy. It transcends even the virtue of freedom.

 

The Uncontested Report

 

The United Methodist Church saw a reduction of at least 71,971 U.S. members in 2011. Put another way, the denomination in the United States lost in one year roughly the equivalent of the Minnesota Annual (regional) Conference and Red Bird Missionary Conference combined.

 

This snapshot comes from reports from 55 of the 59 U.S. conferences, which followed spring and summer annual conference gatherings.

 

The vast majority disclosed declines between 2010 and 2011 in membership, worship attendance or church-school participation — three commonly used metrics for charting disciple-making. Twenty-eight U.S. conferences reported losses in all three categories. Eighteen noted membership drops of 2 percent or more. (Heather Hahn, UMNS Report, http://www.umc.org,  August 2, 2012)

 

A related web post paints a grim picture –

​

Mark Tooley, president of the Institute on Religion & Democracy and a practicing Methodist, told The Christian Post that he did not feel confident in the survival of the UMC in America.

 

"Methodism in the U.S. has lost membership every year since 1964. It has lost over 4.5 million members. There is nothing in its U.S. policies that can or will reverse the decline in the near future," said Tooley.

 

"My own local church is a very typical U.S. United Methodist congregation. It is selling its Sunday school building for lack of people and finances."

Michael Gryboski , United Methodist Church Continues to Decline in America, but Gains in Africa, Christian Post Reporter, http://www.christianpost.com, August 3, 2012

 

And a collection of videos depicts even a grimmer picture - See Amos Gene Ladia, “Already Gone (United Methodist church, decreasing membership, closed churches...”) at http://www.youtube.com

 

My simple feeling is that John Wesley’s prediction (see opening quote above) has finally come to pass beginning with the American Methodists disregard of Wesley’s model of connexionalism set forth in the Deed of Declaration and has extended to our own sorry setting in the Philippines following a similar disregard of the ministers’ covenant (see UMC Book of Discipline) by Filipino Bishops in resolving some domestic issues (2010-2011) and seeking the illegal intervention of the American-dominated Council of Bishops when their own misadventure with the UMC Fair Process??? (Suspension Perpetua-Exclusion Ultima) reached a dead end.

 

John Wesley, venerable Church Father and visionary far ahead of his time saw it coming...gallantly took the blow...and uncompromisingly defended his sacred calling to his dying moment. Let us look at some precious piece of the past as interpreted for modern Methodists by a Methodist scholar based on John Wesley’s writings. You may call John Wesley’s Letter (JWL) as an apostle’s epistle, I call it a prophet’s lamentation!

 

Background

 

John Wesley now began to prepare more in earnest for his own departure from the Methodist scene. at the conclusion of the 1788 conference, at which he ordained six preachers for service abroad, he ordained Alexander Mather, presumably to provide continuity of ordained Methodist ministry in England after his death (JWJ, 7:422). Two months later, he appointed a committee to superintend the Book Room and manage his accounts. Four months later, he drew up a revised will. The advancing years, however did not diminish his energy for the work, which was becoming more demanding as time wore on. The connection had well over sixty thousand members in Great Britain, with over two hundred preachers. The American Methodists, now independent, were presenting problems he had not anticipated. Asbury and Coke had assumed the title “bishop” in preference to the term “superintendent,” a change which moved Wesley to write to his “dear Franky” in 1788.​  

(Richard P. Heitzenrater, Wesley and the People Called Methodists, Abingdon Press, 1995, pp. 300-301)

​

JWL 8:91

 To Francis Asbury

 LONDON, September 20, 1788.

 

[MY DEAR BROTHER], -- There is, indeed, a wide difference between the relation wherein you stand to the Americans and the relation wherein I stand to all the Methodists. You are the elder brother of the American Methodists: I am under God the father of the whole family. Therefore I naturally care for you all in a manner no other persons can do. Therefore I in a measure provide for you all; for the supplies which Dr. Coke provides for you, he could not provide were it not for me, were it not that I not only permit him to collect but also support him in so doing.

 

But in one point, my dear brother, I am a little afraid both the Doctor and you differ from me. I study to be little: you study to be great. I creep: you strut along. I found a school: you a college! [Cokesbury College, so called after its founders Coke and Asbury, was twice burnt down.] nay, and call it after your own names! O beware, do not seek to be something! Let me be nothing, and 'Christ be all in all!'

 

One instance of this, of your greatness, has given me great concern. How can you, how dare you suffer yourself to be called Bishop I shudder, I start at the very thought! Men may call me a knave or a feel, a rascal, a scoundrel, and I am content; but they shall never by my consent call me Bishop! For my sake, for God's sake, for Christ's sake put a full end to this! Let the Presbyterians do what they please, but let the Methodists know their calling better.

 

Thus, my dear Franky, I have told you all that is in my heart. And let this, when I am no more seen, bear witness how sincerely I am

 

Your affectionate friend and brother.​

 (The Letters of John Wesley, The Wesley Center Online,​

 http://wesley.nnu.edu)​

 

With Heitzenrater we find the American Methodists’ attitude contemptuous, disrespectful and truly lamentable  –

 

When Wesley instructed the Americans to have a conference in Baltimore in 1787 to make Richard Whatcoat a General Superintendent, they reacted with less than polite disregard for his wishes. Not only did they ignored Wesley’s instructions, but in doing so, they also rescinded the “binding minute” in order to be consistent and not be found in contempt of their previous pledge of loyalty to Mr. Wesley. Asbury expressed the attitude of the Americans : “For our old Daddy to appoint Conference when and where he pleased,  to appoint a joint superintendent with me, were strokes of power  we did not understand” (Asbury, 3:63). When Wesley heard that the American conference had rejected Whatcoat as superintendent, based on the assumption expressed by Asbury that no person in England could direct the Americans without being “omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent,” he was stunned. Wesley also cringed when he heard of Asbury’s comment, “Mr Wesley and I are like Caesar and Pompey: he will bear no equal, and I will bear no superior.” When Asbury allowed Wesley’s name to be voted out of the American Minutes, the line was crossed, and Wesley reacted:”This completed the matter and showed that he had no connexion with me.” (JWL, *:183).

(Richard P. Heitzenrater, Wesley and the People Called Methodists, ibid.)